This invention relates to a blower for cooling heat generating parts in a casing of an electronic equipment such as a computer of desk-top type or portable or mobile type, and to a heat sink apparatus using the same blower.
Followed by the recent tendency to large-scale integration and expedition, the amount of heat generated by the semiconductor such as a micro-processor unit (hereinafter, referred to as MPU) is increasing. In a personal computer and the like incorporating the MPU which generates a large amount of heat, there have been made various attempts such as to mount a heat sink for radiating heat or a heat sink having a built-in fan motor on an upper surface of the MPU for the purpose of suppressing a temperature rise in a casing.
FIG. 6 shows a dimensional relationship in a case where a heat sink having a built-in fan motor is mounted on an upper surface of the MPU. When the thicknesses of an MPU 71, a printed circuit board 72 and a heat sink 73 having a built-in fan motor are 6 mm, 2 mm and 18 mm respectively, the overall thickness is 26 mm in total. Considering suction of air by the fan motor and insulation of the back of the printed circuit board, there is needed a space of at least 40 mm or so.
In an electronic equipment such as a notebook personal computer or the like, which is required to be thin, an interior space is limited to 30 mm. For this reason, it is impossible to insure an ample space above the upper surface of the MPU on the printed circuit board, and therefore it is impossible to mount a heat sink having a built-in fan motor on the upper surface of the MPU, giving rise to a problem in thermal design.
Meanwhile, in a desk-top personal computer, it is possible to insure a space above the upper surface of the MPU on the printed circuit board, however, there are needed to fan motors for a fan on the MPU and for another fan for exhaust of air from the casing, giving rise to a problem in cost.
In view of the above problems, a heat sink apparatus according to the present invention has a thermally conductive outer frame having a fan disposed in an opening thereof, the outer frame being mounted at one end of a heat conduction member for conducting heat of a heat generating device so as to conduct the heat to the vicinity of the fan to cool the heat generating device. Further, there is provided a heat sink apparatus of the invention that radiation fins are provided on the outer frame to cool the heat generating device more efficiently.
Moreover, a blower according to the present invention is provided with radiation fins having a fan drive section and a thermal conductivity on the side of a fan, adjacent to a heat generating device, within an opening of a thermally conductive outer frame, and therefore the blower can be made small size.
In addition, an electronic equipment according to the present invention includes a casing housing a circuit board having a heat generating device mounted thereon and a heat conduction member for conducting heat of the heat generating device therein, an outer frame having a thermal conductivity and provided with a fan disposed in an opening thereof, the outer frame being attached to the heat conduction member, and radiation fins having thermal conductivity and being provided on the outer frame, so as to remove the heat of the generating device through the heat conduction member, the outer frame and the fins.
With the above construction, the heat of the heat generating device is not only conducted and removed by making use of the outer frame of the fan and the radiation fins in the fan drive section but also cooled by the fan, and therefore the heat of the heat generating device can be removed effectively, and accordingly the equipment incorporating the heat generating device can be made smaller size.